


Re-Awaken

by ElizabethAnnPratt



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics 2019), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Spuffy - Fandom
Genre: Death, F/F, F/M, Necromancy, Post-Canon, Smut, post-comics, season 6, stuck in a loop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:54:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23977771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizabethAnnPratt/pseuds/ElizabethAnnPratt
Summary: Buffy is forced to relive the worst year of her life...But, hey, thank the PTB for hindsight.
Relationships: Spike/Buffy Summers, Tara Maclay/Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris/Anya Jenkins
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	Re-Awaken

**Author's Note:**

> There will be references to the comics throughout this story, so if you haven't read them for some reason, you should do that. lol  
> I'm just writing this piece by piece, making it up as I go along.

Oh, this was so bizarre. Of all the ways to die, of all the ways she _had_ died, this was so bizarre. Her hand reached down to cover the right lower region of her ribs, trying to halt the bleeding as best as possible. She hardly felt anything. _'Must still be in shock.'_ Damn, if only she'd had the chance to put her vest on. _'But, I mean, who could have seen that coming?'_ She knew not everyone liked her, but honestly, this was excessive. Part of her rib definitely had to be shattered; There was no way the bullet didn't go right through it. She could hear Faith still trying to wrestle the offending officer to the ground and she carefully slid herself up against the wall. _'Oh, there's the pain. Great.'_ It shot jolts of icy agony through her whole body and she couldn't help the loud gasp that left her throat.

"Shit, hold on B!" Called her brunette counterpart. "Roades, call an ambulance! We need to get Buffy to the hospital ASAP!" She screeched as she cuffed the belligerent man lying face down below her. Shot by one of her fellow officers. _'What a way to go. He isn't even a demon.'_ This was so bizarre. The pain was rocketing to levels where it hurt too bad to try to inhale anymore. She didn't even want to look down to see the damage. And judging by the amount of blood covering her hand and splattered on the floor, it was a significant amount of damage. Her lack of breath was starting to make her head foggy, her eyesight shifting in and out of focus.

"Faith." She coughed. The other slayer sprinted to her side, taking her non-bloody hand.

"Stay awake, B. The ambulance is on its way. I know you're a tougher bitch than this."

"Faith," she wheezed, "there's not enough time." The brunette shook her head, a few strands of hair falling loose from her bun. "Just make sure," - cough - "that they don't try to bring me back this time. I think...I think the Powers are trying to make a point, here." The blonde gasped for air, squeezing Faith's hand as shocks of pain shot up her chest and spine.

"Nah, B. They're not gonna have to bring you back 'cause you're not gonna die right now. Not to this asshole." She tossed a glance over her shoulder at the perp currently being restrained by two other officers. "If he hates you for being a slayer right now, imagine how pissy he's gonna get when you bounce back from this. You're gonna show him how tough we really are." She tried for a cocky smirk, but Buffy could tell that it didn't quite reach her eyes. Her sister slayer was worried, even if she didn't seem visibly shaken up. The blonde just shook her head, removing her hand from the wound. She watched as Faith's eyes went wide and her mouth gaped in shock. "Shit, B." Her hand squeezed Buffy's even tighter.

"You're officially gonna be considered the original Slayer, now." She rasped, trying to force a smile. Faith leaned back, her eyes bulging, and shook her head. She opened her mouth to protest but Buffy just held her bloody right hand up to silence her. She could hear the sirens just outside of the police station now. But her circulation in her body seemed to have stopped because her limbs felt like they were freezing. Everything was starting to get super fuzzy and grey and her throat seemed to officially be closing up. She could faintly hear the other Slayer screaming, but the ringing in her ears was beginning to drown everything out. Maybe if she just closed her eyes she could focus her other senses on what was happening. Now everything was white. Blindingly white. And quiet...for a moment. Was that...Willow? Chanting? No, she was screaming.

* * *

It was hot, and way too dry. She scrunched up her face and felt her lips crack and her eyes stung so badly that they began to water. Gasping for air and finding almost none, she opened her eyes and blinked quickly. She was met with pitch black. Her arms were folded over her chest and were covered in long sleeves. Oh, God, she couldn't breathe. Oh. _'Oh, God.'_ She'd been here before. She flung her arms upward and was met with a hard, wooden surface. _'No, no, no, no.'_ Dirt fell in tiny grains onto her face and she shook her head to keep it out of her eyes. A coffin. She was waking up in a coffin for the second time in her life. She felt tears sting her ducts and closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing. _'It's okay. You've done this before. Just stay calm. Panicking will cause you to suffocate. And then, knowing your friends and their inability to listen to sensible Buffy requests, you'll die and wake back up in this coffin again.'_ Turning her head to the left and closing her eyes, she held her breath and gave a hard punch upward, splintering the wood above her. A few more punches, accentuated with slayer strength, left her with a gap in the coffin lid, a face full of graveyard dirt, and bloody knuckles. Oh, she was so going to kill them when she got out of here. She told Faith not to let them bring her back this time! Hadn't they learned from the first time? Her fingertips clawed up at the dirt, shifting to the side to let it fall into the coffin.

After what felt like an eternity, which was probably only a half hour or so, she felt her hand break through the soil and meet the cool open air. _'Boy, I sure hope there isn't a bored slayer patrolling. The last thing I need is to pop up and be greeted with a stake-happy cheerleader.'_ Huh, so this is what it felt like to be a fledgling vamp. She almost snickered to herself as she forced her other arm up through the dirt and wiggled herself loose. It was night-time, she acknowledged, as she pulled herself up and out of the grave. Her eyes were still adjusting to the oxygen and light coming from the night sky, but she could tell that it had to be dark out. Turning, she read her tombstone.

Buffy Anne Summers

1981-2001

Beloved Sister

Devoted Friend

She saved the world

A lot

"What the hell?" The blonde mumbled to herself. That was...there was no way. She whipped her head around, taking in the surrounding trees. No way. She looked down, recognizing the black dress and shoes she was adorned in. How? She had died in 2012 to a gunshot that had just nicked her right lung. But without a doubt, she was back in Sunnydale, waking up in her first grave. And there was no way that the past eleven years were just some crazy, lucid dream while she was taking a dirt nap. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the remains of a broken urn. Willow. It had to be Willow's resurrection spell. And, speaking of Willow, if this really was 2001, then her gang of merry misfits was currently battling a horde of ugly biker demons right about now. Buffy sprinted, or at least attempted to sprint in the atrocious kitten heels she had on, into the center of town. She had to find her friends and help rid Sunnydale of the pests that wanted to run it into the ground.

She was pretty sure this was the same alleyway that they'd found her in before. If she could be patient enough then they'd show up soon. But now that all of her memories were coming back, she remembered that Dawn was somewhere out on the streets with Spike. And the more she considered the havoc being wreaked, the more she worried about her sister's well-being. She began walking down the street, in the direction she believed her friends had entered from all those years ago. She had to find them, then they had to find Dawn.

* * *

"Wait. Is that? No, it can't be. Buffy?" Willow's eyes were wide and her head was cocked to the side, her arms raised protectively and stiffly over her chest.

"Is that the bot?" Anya asked. Whoa, it had been so many years since Buffy had heard Anya's voice and the sight of the ex-demon had her head reeling.

"I'm not a bot. I'm here. Really here." She watched as they all scanned her body from head to toe, Anya's eyes lingering on her hair a little too long for Buffy to feel comfortable with. She quickly raised a hand up to try to smooth out the frizzy, matted locks. "Hey, I'd like to see you roll out of bed looking better than this, let alone climb out of a hole in the ground." She pouted.

"But how?" Will puzzled.

"You tell me. It was your spell, wasn't it?" The redhead only shook her head nervously, then nodded.

"No. I mean, yeah! But I thought it didn't work! The ritual got interrupted and the urn got smashed all to bits. Buffy, is it really you?" Before the slayer had a chance to respond Xander was grabbed by the back of his shirt and yanked into the chest of a tall, bulky demon with frizzy hair and a goatee.

"Looky what we got here, boys." He chuckled.


End file.
